The big question every journalist pontificates on today: Who won? If the pundits and focus groups are to be believed, it was one of the three front-runners. But a surprise entry generated a lot of ink, much of it positive: The format.

A CNN focus group of voters in Manchester chose Senator Barack Obama. An overnight SurveyUSA poll called the debate for Senator Hillary Clinton (which led one of the Clinton camp's three "reviews are in" releases after the debate). Chris Cillizza says it was Edwards who "seemed the boldest of the three in his call for bold action." Politico's Roger Simon gave the win, place and show awards to Edwards, Clinton and Obama, in that order. Meanwhile, the Charleston Post and Courier, which offers behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the debate, says "no single candidate appeared to turn in a slam-dunk performance" primarily because "there were so many players on the court."

Perhaps the most obvious winner, as we mentioned last night, was the format. Allowing ordinary people to submit questions -- and CNN reports this morning that nearly 3000 questions were submitted -- gave the network a prime opportunity to screw it up by picking ridiculous questions posed by talking animals. Except for a few bizarre moments, including a melting snowman and a guy with a giant gun, the questions CNN chose were smart, interesting and not necessarily those that would have made the cut had journalists been in charge of asking.

Minor improvements should be made in advance of the Republican YouTube debate in September, but in all, CNN pulled off an impressive show that gave candidates a chance to shine. Of course, not everyone liked the format, including WaPo's Jeff Jarvis, who says he is "sorely disappointed."

Former President Bill Clinton caught the debate at 2 am local time in Arusha, Tanzania, before heading off to view a crater called Ngoro Ngoro.

In other, non-debate news today, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has seen a slight drop in his national lead as former Senator Fred Thompson's campaign has begun to gear up.

Giuliani remains the leader of the GOP field nationwide, with a 5.2% head start in the latest RCP average, but he trails former Governor Mitt Romney in Iowa and New Hampshire. Since 1972, only Bill Clinton and George McGovern have won their party's nomination after failing to win either Iowa or New Hampshire (both finished second in New Hampshire when they ran).

Giuliani, who has thusfar focused primarily on February 5th states and Florida (which holds its primary before South Carolina, and where Giuliani leads by 3.4% in the latest RCP average), shifts his focus to early states today as he begins running radio spots in Iowa and New Hampshire touting his record as New York's mayor.